


Character Study: Feuilly

by TheBraveHobbit



Series: Taut [8]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:36:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBraveHobbit/pseuds/TheBraveHobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern!AU Feuilly: Laborer, Protector, Pragmatist</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character Study: Feuilly

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my sandbox-style Modern!AU: Taut  
> Additional content can be found on my tumblr: elfjolras.tumblr.com

**Modern!AU Feuilly: Laborer, Protector, Pragmatist**

> _“What’re you readin’ a chemistry book for? You’re a mechanic.”  
>  “Because it’s good to know.”  
> “You should have gone to school, man.”  
> “Nah.”  
> “What?”  
> “It pays to be smart. It_  **costs** _to be educated. I’ll do my learning on my own.”_

Feuilly doesn’t have anything to remember his parents by. There’s no trinket he can carry, no tattered photograph folded into his typically empty wallet. Fire’s merciless that way. He believes that his mother loved him, and he imagines she was beautiful, with freckles across her nose and ribbons in her hair. When he thinks of his father, he envisions a stern jaw and gentle eyes.

It’s all speculation, of course. He admits that.

He was four when it happened. No one ever told him exactly how. He thinks about it sometimes, but not as often as one might suppose. Rather than allow himself to be troubled by the suffering in his own past, he expands his compassion to include the whole of France—the whole of the world, on days he is feeling ambitious—and often his is the voice that casts the shade of true experience over their meetings. The others mean well, but all the compassion in the world is no substitute for real understanding. He knows first-hand how difficult it is to begin with nothing, to struggle for survival in a failing job market and an unsympathetic welfare system. When he speaks, it is with frankness and sincerity, and his words are upheld by the tenderness he feels for those who have not done so well for themselves as he.

Feuilly is one of the lucky ones, though he’d never stand to hear it said quite that way. He’s fought for what he has, for his job at the automotive shop, for the hole-in-the-wall that he calls an apartment, and even for the wealth of knowledge he possesses. Knowledge, that power so carefully reserved for those who can afford it. Can’t have the unwashed masses getting an education—they might get ideas! Every page Feuilly devours is an act of defiance, and he savors it.

Though he is most fond of historical accounts, Feuilly will read about anything. Many’s the time he can be found discussing some passage or another he’s taken from a science text, seeking the opinion of Combeferre and Joly on some biological question or some chemical curiosity. It’s important to understand legal texts as well, and he’s put that knowledge to practical application on more than one occasion. Bahorel may never fully repay that debt, but Feuilly isn’t actually counting. Now and again he even ventures into hobbyist books, crossing his knowledge of chemistry with his fondness for intricate and well-kept aquaria. He regularly makes use of the public library, and barters favors with his friends at the university to gain access to those books as well. He reads over meals, he reads on the train, he reads before bed. He’s rarely seen without a book in his hand and another two in his bag.

Feuilly looks forward to a future when education and employment are not so hard to come by, when a person’s origins are not used as fetters to prevent their advancement. Until then, he takes such deliverance upon himself.

—-

 


End file.
